Well, I know I should have written earlier, but work has been giving me a ton of pressure and I probably have a lot to catch up on.

So where to start? Being me I'll go in reverse order.

Well last night, the whole family went to see "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." This is the first time I've got to see Harry Potter on the "big screen." (This is also the first time for A, but for him we thought he was too young. He would have been too young again for this movie, but he's heard the whole book on cassette.) I liked the movie, except . . .. They chose to explain very little. Who were Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail and Prongs? If you hadn't read the book you wouldn't know. How come Lupin knew the Marauder's Map was a map? Again, no clue in the movie. Why was Harry's Patronus in the shape of a stag? No clue in the movie. R was upset that there was no sign of Cho. E didn't like that the movie was so far from the book. In comparison, for me, the added scene (** spoiler ahead **) where Harry sees Peter Pettigrew's name on the Marauder's Map was very logical within the movie. I look forward to the release of the DVD.

I like quiet in a synagogue. So on Shabbat, when a guy brought his noisy kid into the synagogue, I said nothing for a while. None of the Gabbai'im (synagogue officials) did anything. When the child continued to make noise during the Torah reading, I asked the guy to take his kid outside. Instant uproar. "How dare I talk that way to a guest." I make my points by pointing at the person I'm talking to. Big mistake. The guy, who had been talking to the "guest" all through services, grabbed my wrist hard (the marks stayed on my wrist for hours and I still have a scar from his finger nail) and then accused me of trying to hit him. Others came to say how bad a person I was. One man came not so much to my defense, but to quiet the disruption. Afterwards, the synagogue was a little quieter. I must say I'm considering leaving the synagogue, but if I do it will be a time of my own choosing. At the end of services the president of the synagogue got up and complained about the noise and said it was the responsibility of people to tell their guests to be quiet.

R and E performed with the rest of the girls in their karate class performed at a women's-only benefit for Agunot (women whose husbands refuse to divorce them). S went with them, and she told me that the girls performed very well.

I want to finish up now, so I'll wrap up for now. One last thing, A has been swimming in the pool since his "sinking." We've booked him (and E) to have more swimming lessons during the summer holidays.